Saturday, December 24, 2016

Why Francis is So Dangerous

Mercy vs. Truth

The Bear will deliberately not look up the details to demonstrate how obscure this example from history is.

It is often claimed that there have been plenty of bad popes, so we shouldn't worry too much about Francis. One example of a pope who taught error was a certain (don't remember) who, in (a long time ago) taught the error that - the Bear thinks - the blessed dead do not enjoy the Beatific Vision until after Judgment Day. Or something like that.

The Bear has never worried about that issue. If he makes the cut, then jolly good for him, and he doesn't worry about the details. The moment when, in the unimaginable state of the afterlife, he begins to enjoy something he cannot possibly comprehend, is just something that never enters his 450 gm. ursine brain. As far as he is concerned, it could be once he gets out of Purgatory, or on Judgment Day, or sort of fade in over centuries.

It does not have any practical bearing on him as a Catholic now.

Pope Francis, however, is far, far worse. He does not teach error, so much as he teaches truth, but in the wrong way. Error we can deal with. Mercy, however, cannot be condemned. The Church can shrug off error. It remains to be seen whether it can do the same with the truth. Chesterton wrote:

The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone.

The modern Church is now full of the old virtues gone mad. Change a few pronouns, and, eerily, it might have been written today, with Francis in mind.

There's an old saying, every heresy is the revenge of a forgotten truth. There might be a bit in this with Francis; the Bear does not know. But Psalm 85:10 says, "Mercy and truth have met each other."

With Francis, Mercy must be separated from Truth.

When one hears the Church spouting off about pop science like global warming; the benefits of unrestricted immigration; how Islam, as one of the Three Great Abrahamic Religions, is practically Catholic and certainly no more terroristic; and how Jews retain a special means of salvation that does not involve Jesus, one must recognize that the Church is suddenly trading in lies. The Bear must ask: can men make a business of trafficking in lies, yet teach the truth in all its purity in one specific area?

"The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body will be lightsome: but if it be evil, thy body also will be darksome." Luke 11:34. And, Matthew 6:24. "No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

Francis, for the good of his own soul, must decide which master he serves. And so must the Church. You are either running with the wolves, or you are feeding the sheep. You can't do both.

3 comments:

My goodness, but the Almighty has blessed you with the gift of wordsmithing!....

""There's an old saying, every heresy is the revenge of a forgotten truth. There might be a bit in this with Francis; the Bear does not know. But Psalm 85:10 says, "Mercy and truth have met each other."With Francis, Mercy must be separated from Truth."

Clear, pure, concise, crystalline-Chestertonian analysis and expression. Just brilliant!....see Bear, this is why I snuffle around the woodland everyday as possible....clear, pure, concise, crystalline-Chestertonian analysis and expression.

God love you my friend, and God richly bless you and your beautiful family this Christmastide and always.

Puer natus est hodie....Gaudete!!! (hodie, as I'm seeing the first star of sunset :)Merry Christmas to all the woodland critters, and may our King have mercy on His poor beaten flock in 2017....I have a presentiment that it's gonna be a real hummdinger.

A case could be made that FrqncisMercy, even if it didn't disparage Truth, isn't mercy in the first place.

The Catholic Faith is a house of cards...move anything just slightly and there will be massive shifts if not complete collapse.

BTW Psalm 85:10 is Babette's Feast. That keeps coming up.

I will argue that the problem is not the praxis of how Pope Francis teaches. The metaphysics is off...it is screwy. It is hard to systematize and it is often contrary to known universal points of theological fact.

There are lots of under currents within the Catholic theological stream. If you have read widely, as I know that the bear has, you can be comfortable with these undercurrents coexisting, even if you look askew at one or two. You also get good at spotting stuff that doesn't belong...It raises red flags very quickly.

What makes all of this dangerous, is that so very few Catholics are widely read and a greater number have been poorly catechized.

Good post as always. The less attention I pay to Jorge Bergoglio, the better. He like Obama his secular counterpart and the liberals who separate mercy and truth will answer to Jesus Christ as shall we all. Truth and Mercy win together. Francis loses.

"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20 NABRE). Bear Gets By ...

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